Why are my chickens aggressive at night when roosting?

[RoosterWhisperer]

Every night I have to deal with the hens either pecking really hard at each other or biting/pecking there feet hard and I have to keep intervening. It's always when there roosting. I mean throughout the day yes they are a little bit like dont touch my food or they hate sharing lol. Well my silkie sleeps alone on the second roosts bc they always pack and bully her so she gets hurt and I have to keep her safe. Any ideas why to any of this lol i dont know

Well their probably really cranky from being overcrowded, I know I would

 

[RobertaD1]

Start by moving out the food and water. See if things improve. If they dont, you will have to add on, or reduce numbers, or they will be miserable cramped. Sorry to put it that way, but that space is small for 7 birds.

 

[Annalyse]

Start by moving out the food and water. See if things improve. If they dont, you will have to add on, or reduce numbers, or they will be miserable cramped. Sorry to put it that way, but that space is small for 7 birds.

Yes I know. My original plan was 4 birds but ended up with 7 lol. But yes tomrrow I'm gonna move out there food and keep the water for a couple days bc they do use it at night well mine do before they go to bed.

 

[cmom]

I think your idea to give them more roost space is good. With 7 birds your roost space looks adequate to me but more roost space will probably help. My coops aren't large in respect to the amount of birds in them but they do have adequate roost space. My feeders hang in the coops. I have auto waterers outside of the coops next to the pop doors. I don't close the pop doors at night but I have nice large covered pens, electric wires around my coops and pens and concrete under the gates, all due to loss from predators in the past. I have had a few issues over the years that I resolved. Good luck...

 

[Annalyse]

I think your idea to give them more roost space is good. With 7 birds your roost space looks adequate to me but more roost space will probably help. My coops aren't large in respect to the amount of birds in them but they do have adequate roost space. My feeders hang in the coops. I have auto waterers outside of the coops next to the pop doors. I don't close the pop doors at night but I have nice large covered pens, electric wires around my coops and pens and concrete under the gates, all due to loss from predators in the past. I have had a few issues over the years that I resolved. Good luck...

I close my door every night bc I dont trust the bears lol. We've also had bigfoot sighting so I'm not risking it haha. But yes I'm gonna do that and see how things work out. Thank you

 

[cmom]

A bear can do a lot of damage. Good hot electric wires around the coop and pen works wonders especially if it's strong enough and the wire is baited to get the bear to touch the wire with it's nose, tongue or lips. Usually once they connect they stay away, if you have any bears lurking around. Again, good luck...

 

[Annalyse]

A bear can do a lot of damage. Good hot electric wires around the coop and pen works wonders especially if it's strong enough and the wire is baited to get the bear to touch the wire with it's nose, tongue or lips. Usually once they connect they stay away, if you have any bears lurking around. Again, good luck...

Havent had one yet but hopefully never. But also with my clumsiness I'm gonna hurt myself on those bear traps as well lol

 

[MarkJr]

I’m running a crowded coop. I was up to 16 plus a rooster in a 7x7 with only 14 feet of roost. I added another 7’ of roost bar. Down side is it crosses the bottom two bars.
Squabbles at night all but stopped. But they were still cranky.
Now I’m down to 11 including the rooster, and my broody uses the old small coop to rear her babies, and she will rejoin when weaned. This is a free choice thing to the flock. All birds have total access everywhere.

Making a larger coop or dropping numbers truly is the best answer.

 

[Annalyse]

I’m running a crowded coop. I was up to 16 plus a rooster in a 7x7 with only 14 feet of roost. I added another 7’ of roost bar. Down side is it crosses the bottom two bars.
Squabbles at night all but stopped. But they were still cranky.
Now I’m down to 11 including the rooster, and my broody uses the old small coop to rear her babies, and she will rejoin when weaned. This is a free choice thing to the flock. All birds have total access everywhere.

Making a larger coop or dropping numbers truly is the best answer.

I cant do neither of those so I'm making it more spacious.

 

[MarkJr]

I cant do neither of those so I'm making it more spacious.

More space is making it larger..... or did I miss something?